


The Daily Life of a Lowell High Lion

by lotioncryogenics



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Journalism, Drama, Everyone is a dork, Football, Jock shiro, M/M, Marching Band, Mutual Pining, Pining Lance (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Slow Burn, So is Hunk, Theater - Freeform, Wingman Keith, allura is a goddess, allura is student body president, broganes, hunk is a photographer, keith is in colorguard, lance is a drama nerd, matt is senior drum major, pidge does costumes, shiro is in student publications, student publications, thespians, wingman allura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-07-06 06:32:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15880494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotioncryogenics/pseuds/lotioncryogenics
Summary: The Lowell Lions welcome you to join us on our everyday antics in a thespians group, marching band, student publications and the loosing teams of several athletics! We love it here though and we invite you to fall in love with your fellow lions, just as our dear Takashi Shirogane and Lance McClain do!----It starts when the master schedule at Lowell is all messed up and Shiro has to take a drama class where he meets Lance who has just joined student publications with his friend Hunk. They get to know one another is these two close knit school groups.





	1. Give this man a viable schedule

**Author's Note:**

> A sweet shance fic for people who are tired of reading only sex in the shance tag.
> 
> The voltron kids do a lot of stuff and here's a guide!  
> Matt- Senior drum major(flute), senate  
> Pidge- mellophone, speech and debate, swimming  
> Keith- Colorguard, basketball, student publications  
> Shiro- Football, wrestling, soccer, baseball, TV Broadcast  
> Hunk- Photo and yearbook editor, Dragon boat  
> Lance- Cheer and basketball  
> Allura: Senate(student body pres) basketball, tennis, swimming and volleyball, cross country, percussion, BSU, NHS  
> Coran- cheer coach, drama teacher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of school and things have already gone to shit.

At this moment in time, all Shiro wanted was to not be in the fifth period drama class. It conflicted with the only AP Physics class on campus. He didn't need to be in AP Physics, he’d already taken regular physics, he just wanted to get the AP credit for next year. 

More importantly though, he did not want to be stuck with a bunch of theater nerds and annoying freshman that were shoved into the class because there was nowhere else to go. 

Hopefully he could change his schedule with Principal Marx instead of waiting all lunch period in a line for the counselors office. 

He slowly made his way across the street to Lowell’s Performing Arts Building and silently laughed as he watched all the freshmen speed walk. They were so afraid they wouldn’t make to class on time, despite the seven minute passing period. 

Shiro crossed the threshold of the theater as the bell rang. He saw the teacher, Mr. H, talking to a student in a blue baseball shirt. and spinning a plastic sword in his hand.

Shiro sat down in one on the seats and tried to not look like he didn’t want to be there- It was almost as hard as the SAT.

“Hello guys! Welcome back to school!” the teacher said enthusiastically. “I’m Mr. Heironimus, but you call me Mr. H if that’s easier.”

As he was talking, the student who Mr. H was talking to sat in front of Shiro.

“This year is very exciting because last year we raised enough money for the licensing for Heathers! I hope that all of you stick around long enough to do auditions and perform with us in December.”

Shiro looked around the room for any friends. He saw Allura, Hunk and Matt’s younger sister, Pidge. 

Shiro caught Allura’s eye and she waved him over. He grabbed his bag and walked to Allura and planted himself in the seat next to her.

“I’m glad you’re in this class. If I get stuck in this class I need someone to hang out with.”

“Have you tried talking to Counselor Lahng?” Allura suggested

“No, there’s lines throughout the entire hallway, it’s insane.” Shiro scoffed.

“Yeah, the district is short hundreds of teachers so we barely have any classes.”

“That makes sense, I’m so glad I’m graduating so I don’t have to deal with this next year.”

“You and me both, buddy.” Allura sighed.

“Okay everyone, stand up and get onto the stage. We’re going to introduce ourselves!” Mr. H clapped.

Shiro groaned and shuffled up to the stage. 

Everyone stood in a circle and Mr. H gave them instructions. “Say your name, grade and what you want to do in this class this year. Starting with…” He looked around the room and pointed at a student. “You! Then we’ll go clockwise.”

“Hello guys! I’m Hunk, a junior. I want to get over my stage fright and then do all the things behind the stage.”

Next was Matt’s little sister. “Pidge. I’m a sophomore and I want to organize the prop and costume closet because I cannot stand walking into that chaotic room.”

A couple people laughed at that. Shiro wondering how bad the room must be because the last time he went to the Holt house, it looked like a tornado had ripped through the place.

A few more people introduced themselves and it finally got to Shiro and Allura.

“I’m Takashi but just call me Shiro. I’m a senior. What I hope to accomplish here is to get out of this class and pass AP Physics.”

Mr. H and a couple seasoned Drama kids rolled their eyes.

“I’m Allura and I’m also a senior. I want to play Heather Chandler or Veronica this year.”

When Allura finished talking the door opened and someone walked in. It was Keith.

Keith handed his schedule to Mr. H and said: “Hey, I’m Keith. I guess I’m in this class now or whatever.”

“The more the merrier!” Mr. H excliamed and give Keith back the schedule.

Keith nodded at Shiro and went to go stand next to him.

“So Keith, say your name, grade and what you want to do this year in Drama.” Mr. H instructed.

“Oh, uh, I’m Keith- Junior. I don’t really know what I wanna do here. They didn’t have room for me in ROTC and this was the only other elective I can take that fit with my schedule.”

“Don’t worry about that Keith, I’m sure you’ll grow to love this class.”

“Doubt it, my brother is here.”

“Really? Who’s your brother?” a student who shiro remembered as Mick, asked.

Keith stuck his thumb at Shiro and frowned.

“I’m not that bad,” Shiro defended himself.

“Yeah well, you don’t live with you.” Keith whispered back.

It was approaching the end of class and the last student was finally ready to say who they were.

“Hey guys! I’m Lance, the head student director. I’m a junior and I’ve been here since 9th grade. I want to put on the perfect high school performance of Heathers this world has seen. I also really want to be JD this year. Of course if someone amazing comes along and is perfect for JD I will more than happy to award them with the role.”

“Okay so we are approaching the end of class and tomorrow, come back to this stage. We’ll be doing a crash course in theater the next two days and next week, we will review Heathers.”

The bell rang and everyone ran for the exit. 

It was lunch time now.

Shiro beelined to the counselors office and thankfully the line was still short. 

Twenty minutes later, Shiro was in Ms. Lahng’s room getting very upset.

“What do you mean you can’t do anything?” He said incredulously. 

“I mean that there’s no way for you to be in that AP Physics class. It’s over maximum capacity already and Dr. Galley has begged us not to add anymore students.” Lahng explained.

“I really need this class. Miss, please.” Shiro begged.

“Takashi, I don’t know what to tell you. Look on the bright side, if you don’t need to take this class and you’re on track to graduation. If you needed the credit I could put you in a regular class but my hands are tied. If at least five people drop out, I’ll let you know and try to add you.”

Shiro groaned and lowed his head. “I understand. Thanks for trying though.”

“You’re welcome. Please go to the Drama class in the meantime.”

“I will.” Shiro waved to Lahng and made his way to the cafeteria. He sat down with Keith, Matt and Allura.

“Did you fix it?” Matt asked.

“Nope. They have way too many kids in AP Physics.

“Oh man, that sucks. That class does have a lot of people though. We don’t have enough desks to fit everyone. It’s pretty chaotic right now.” Keith said.

Allura chimed in with, “I wish Dr. Galley was like Mr. Leed. He wanted me in that class so bad he stole a desk from Ms. Ramey.”

“Dang dude,” Shiro smiled. “so Matt, any scheduling issues for you?”

“Oh nah I definitely don't. Know why?” Matt prompted a response. They all shook their heads. “Cause I don't have a schedule. Everything has gone so wrong, I have been briefly disenrolled.”

“Jeez! That's crazy. The district needs to pull their shit together.” Allura shook her head.

“I'm not the only one either. A few other kids are dealing with the same thing.”

“I'm glad I don't have to deal with that,” Allura added. “If I cared about my electives then that might be a problem but I don't so sucks for you guys. Then again I have a lot of extracurriculars so, I guess there’s some kind of compromise.”  
“Oh man, tell me about it. This year I’m doing Football, wrestling, soccer, baseball, and broadcast.” Shiro groaned.

The group continued to talk about their heavy schedules until the bell rang. They scattered in their different directions.

Shiro was off to his TV Broadcast class and breathed a sigh of relief. He loved publications.  
It was the only winning team he was apart of.

Apart from that, he found that the publications team was his family. He was excited to be apart of the team and this year, he was the executive producer of the broadcast. Hopefully the freshmen he had to train wouldn’t be too bad. 

He walked in to see the new journalism kids being subjected to the first of many antics of the publication team.

“Robert, that’s my chair!” Frankie yelled.

“Uhm, new year, new chairs.” Robert teased back.

“Oh whatever, I have seniority.” They rolled their eyes.

In the other corner Z, the publications advisor was telling Ryan not to eat all the snacks she bought for the week in two minutes and in the back of the room, Hunk was introducing himself to the journalism kids. 

Shiro smiled and sat in a chair next to the kid from drama, Lance, Shiro recalled. 

This year was going to be amazing.


	2. Extra, Extra! (Not really, we need a news staff)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet the publications team! Complete with a frazed editor, a yelling advisor, not enough snacks and ignorantly positive newbies.

Hello student publications! I am Mrs. Zimmermann, or as you’ll see the more seasoned students call me, Z.” Mrs. Z, announced. 

“This year we don’t have a lot of students for Newspaper and Broadcast so we’re just going have you guys jump right in soon.”  
A couple student’s faces lit up. Shiro got excited that students wanted to jump in right away. Although, he was not looking forward to reading their first stories. 

“So, we are going to start by introducing you guys to the publications team,” Z said. “Let’s start with Hunk.”

“Hello everyone! I’m Hunk Garrett. I’m the editor in chief of the yearbook and lead photographer. This class isn’t either of those so I’m just here for fun and to help out. I’m pretty easy to get along with but I’m not afraid to be an authority figure.”

“I’m Ezra- the editor in chief of the Highlight, or the newspaper to all the new Lowell kids. I’ve been here all four years and next year I’m leaving the Highlight in Frankie’s caring hands.”

“At least we hope they’re caring.” Robert laughed.

“Oh shut it,” Frankie shook their head. “Anyway, I’m Frankie, the managing editor of the Highlight but I pretty much help out with everything. Feel free to ask me anything, I am always happy to answer any questions.” They turned to Shiro, as if tossing the attention to him.

“I’m Shiro. I am the executive producer of the broadcast this year and I hope I don’t burn down the place. I’m really excited that you guys are here. As you can see, we don’t have many staff members and most of us are seniors. It would mean a lot if you sticked with Z next year.”

After that, the rest of the student staff introduced themselves: Robert, Shay, Alexis, Mary, Adrian, Tony, Mateo and Victoria. 

The rest of the class was showing the new journalism students around and telling them what to expect from the class. 

Shiro took his time to try and meet all the new kids and had some very interesting conversations with some very nervous freshman.

“Lowell is just so huge!” a freshman, Andrea exclaimed. 

“Yeah like how will I make it to all my classes in the passing period? The school has seven gigantic buildings across two blocks!” Eden, another freshman said, clutching his heart.

Shiro simply laughed. “You guys will be fine! Believe it or not, this year will fly by so fast. Freshman year is the easiest and you'll love it. The school isn't so big once you get used to it and the passing periods are just enough time to get across campus. We have seven minutes, you're fine." 

“Really?” Ricardo asked.

“Of course! Don't worry about anything! The real work begins in your sophomore year and even then it's pretty casual.” Shiro assured the scared 14 year olds.

“Thanks!” said Marina.

Shiro smiled and walked over to Hunk. As he walked away he heard the freshmen say: “Wow! He's so cool and mature! Seniors are awesome.”

Shiro almost burst out laughing. He was probably average when it came to maturity of his age group and the senior class were the least mature out of them all. The seniors were a bunch of dumbasses who had the nerve to put on a facade of wisdom when they were really the closest to jumping off a cliff and dropping out three days before graduation. 

Shiro shook his head and rested his arm on Hunks shoulder, who was talking to Lance. 

“Hey what's up?” Hunk greeted.

“Nothing much,” he responded nonchalantly. “Was just reminded that freshmen think seniors are old and mature.”

“Oh man, that's hilarious. Upperclassmen are idiots.” Lance said.

“I know, right! We know nothing more than the 14 year olds except maybe the fact that we don't have to freak out about everything.”

“Seniority is BS.” Lance scoffed.

“Undeniably true.” Hunk nodded. “By the way, this is Lance McClain. Lance, this is Takashi Shirogane.”

“Nice to meet you. I guess we'll be working together a lot between Zimmermann and Heironimus.” Shiro noted.

“Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.” He said. “I've been wanting to get to know you for a while. You're Keith's older brother?”

“Yep. Why fo you ask?”

“No reason, Keith and I are just friendly rivals.”

“Oh, you're that kid!” Shiro exclaimed. “Keith's always complaining that there's this guy trying to one up him. It's pretty funny. Especially when he kicks your ass and that's all I hear about for a week.”

“My reputation precedes me.” Lance bowed slightly. 

“I guess so. What do you wanna do this year?”

“A little bit of everything. I'm particularly interested in print reporting and writing stories.” Lance said.

“That's great because we only have three print reporters this year.” 

“Nice to know I’m needed. And I mean that in a non-sarcastic way.” he giggled.

“Oh dang, he’s cute.” Shiro thought. 

Shiro moved on to talking to Frankie about sharing reporters and they immediately seemed stressed. 

“On the staff page it’s only going to have editor in chief, managing editor and then Shay is the only reporter. That seems like such a weird imbalance of power and I don’t like it.” They shook their head.

“Frankie, chillax. That new kid Lance wants to write and I think he’s Hunk’s friend.”

“Oh yeah, I know him. We’re both theatre nerds except he has the nerve to actually perform.”

“Yeah, I'm in the drama class with him. He seems pretty cool. I'm really excited about this year. We have a lot of new kids.”

Alexis walked by and whispered, “Yeah but like three of them will actually work.”

Frankie sighed. “She's not wrong. Last year then only new journalism kids working were Ella, Shay, and myself. Alexis and Robert only started working in April.”

“Yeah and Ella left so really only two reporters mattered.” Shiro pointed out.

“Oh come on, that's not fair. Ella did a lot she just wanted to focus on pointless internships instead.”

Shiro shook his head and the bell rang. He waved goodbye to everyone and made his way to seventh period. 

He thought about the upcoming year and Lance.

Lance seemed nice and he was definitely cute. Shiro wondered why he had never seen him before, despite Lance being her for three years, ever since his freshman year.

He supposed it didn't matter now but it did irk him. He was a reporter, and he should be able to recognize anyone from Highland. 

Shiro then got a tiny bit excited that he was going to be able to work with Lance all year long with the two most personal, hands on classes on campus. 

Shiro needed something cute to look at through the day. School was ugly and it dragged on for far too long. 

Shiro reminded himself not to start anything. The newsroom and publications was like a job and one should never pursue an office romance. 

As long as Shiro didn't do anything, he would be fine. 

“That's not going to be a problem. I'm a senior. Romance is the last thing in my mind. I mainly just want sleep.” He thought. 

He made his way to the third floor of Chester Hall, where the dreaded pre-calculus class awaited him. 

The stairs were a pain, but this was only a fraction of what Mr. Paek had in store for the tired students of pre-calc.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope you’ re enjoying this so far! This fic is heavily based off of my high school experiences and hopefully you can find my school as great as I do.  
> So there's a thing called sports tricks with shiro and its based off of something our publications team does so here's some links! (sports tricks is after the credits)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8kzfd0iiVo  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khdrIDRbCzY  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUEzZrTNb5I  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTuN7nKG_gw  
> And here's some bloopers!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT8JIy3XvgY  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7KMA4L8Low


	3. Audition day, aka, DONt ChOKE

The first week of school had come and gone and Shiro already had tons of homework. Fortunately, he had two class periods free and he could work on the three chapters worth of notes due for his History class. 

Next period was Drama and although Shiro initially resented the class, he was now excited. Heathers, as it turned out, was one of the greatest movies of all time. The Drama class watched it on Thursday and Friday and Shiro was in love. 

It was a timeless masterpiece and he could not wait to perform. 

He didn’t have the vocal skill to be a lead so maybe he could be Kurt or Ram. They were assholes but maybe Shiro could add to the Gay aura of the characters. 

Today was Monday, the day of auditions. 

He was really nervous because he had never been to an audition before. He knew he was supposed to sing, but what was considered appropriate? Did it have to be from a musical?

After debating song choices all weekend, he settled on I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan. It was simple and honestly, how could he go wrong with a classic?

❥❥❥❥❥  
Lance raced across campus to get to fifth period before anyone else. He was the director and he needed to hold a certain authority.

He thought about all the kids in the drama class and how it was more than twice their numbers last year.

Lance heard Pidge call his name so he slowed down and turned around. She was close behind and running fast to catch up.

“Curse your long legs.” She said.

“Sorry, I can’t help it.” He laughed

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” pidge scoffed. “You excited?”

“Of course I am! I hope I can find a good JD! I think Shiro would be pretty good for the role. He is a bit too buff but we can work with it.”

“I think it’s cool that you’re open to giving up your dream role.”

“Well, that’s my job as a director.”

They continued to the Performing Arts Center, or PAC and Lance was buzzing with excitement.

They walked into the theater and Lance sat down in his directors seat next to Coran and Pidge took her assistant directors seat.

Everyone sat somewhere around them, whispering about their audition. 

A couple minutes after the bell rang and the three stood up.

“Today's the day folks!” Coran projected. “We will call you up individually where you will sing anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes of your song. We will raise our clipboards once your two minutes is up and raise our hands when you have 30 seconds left.”

“Any questions?” Pidge asked. 

No one said anything.

“Raise your hand if you're nervous.” Lance prompted. 

A couple people raised their hands and Lance replied, “You're all liars. If you're not nervous, you're not doing it right.” 

×××

They were almost done with auditions. They just had three people left. 

“Takashi Shirogane,” Coran called.

Shiro made his way to the stage and Lance immediately took note that he seemed very nervous. 

“Hello Shiro, who will you be trying out for?” Pidge asked.

“Kurt Kelly or Ram Sweeney.” Shiro nodded. 

“Fantastic, and what will you be singing?” Lance followed.

“I'll make a man out of you from Mulan.”

“A classic. Thank you, Shiro. Go ahead and start when you're ready.” Coran waved.

Lance couldn't wait for this audition. If shiro could sing and had enough confidence he would try to push him into JD. 

The confidence, Shiro had, just not on stage and they could work on that.

He opened his mouth and let out the first notes and Lances hopes were dashed.

Shiro could sing but it was not enough to carry a lead.

Kurt Kelly and Ram Sweeney were the best options. 

Lance drew a sad face on his paper and showed Pidge. She nodded sympathetically. 

Shiro only sung for a little bit, said thank you and they proceeded with the questions.

“Thank you Shiro. Do you have any foreseeable conflicts during tech week and or performances?”

“The only sport I have in December is Wrestling and it's too early to determine that but there's a low possibility for conflict. Competitions usually happen Friday and Saturday nights and we just have rehearsal during the school day right?”

“No sometimes rehearsal can go until 8 or 9 at night.” Lance corrected.

“Oh, then I'll have to get back to you on that.”

“No worries for now.” Lance assured him. “Any prior theater experience or dance classes?”

“Nope.”

“Any restrictions or hesitancies with makeup and handing complete control with clothes to someone else?”

“Well, I can't do heels but I don't think that's really a thing for Heathers.”

“Awesome. Thanks Shiro, you may sit down now.”

“Allura Brooks,” Coran called the next person.

×××

Auditions finished and everyone was dismissed the fifth period while Lance and Pidge stayed behind to discuss who would be who.

They all agreed that there weren't any JD auditions that were even close to the quality to Lance’s performance at the last minute. 

Lance did reluctantly accept it since he was the director but he was ecstatic.

“We're gonna have to ask Allura is she can dye her hair for the role. At least temporary dye because silver hair is not gonna cut it.” Lance questions aloud. 

“Rosalba was a pretty good Veronica too if Allura doesn't wanna dye her hair.” Pidge noted.

“Allura was perfect though. I'll throw a fit if she doesn't want to dye her hair and we have to replace her.” Lance whined.

“I agree with Lance. Do any of you have her number?” Coran asked.

“I have her Instagram, lemme text her.”

Lanceyyyblue: Hey Allura, would you temporarily dye your hair black or brown?

Lunalura: I guess? For veronica, yeah. It also depends how long the dye lasts. 

Lanceyyyblue: k, cool. Thanks.

“She says yes.” Lance confirmed.

“Awesome!” Pidge exclaimed.

“Too bad Shiro couldn’t make the cut, they would’ve been amazing together.”

“True, they already have a great dynamic,” she agreed. 

“I mean, to play as a couple and you are a couple? No hesitations whatsoever! It would have been a breeze with the bedroom scene.” Lance sighed.

“Couple? They aren’t a couple. Shiro is gay.” Pidge laughed.

“Really? Dang! If he were straight they’d be the ultimate power couple.”

“Can we get back on track,” Coran reminded them.

“Yeah, sorry Coran.”

The trio got to work, finishing the cast list. At least they attempted to.

The meeting was incrementally interrupted by some fights over who should really play Heather Chandler and Heather Duke.

“I cannot believe you think Lana Vale should play Duke! Abbey White should be Duke! Abbey has the perfect ‘I’ll stab you from behind’ resting face! That is Duke’s entire character.”

“Yeah, I get that but Lana Vale is THE cheerleader who causes drama and never shows up to practice! You should know that, you’re a frigging cheerleader!”

“Lana is just a drama whore, she’s actually really nice. And plus, Abbey sings better and has less conflict.”

“Fine. Abbey White can be Duke if Aidan Reilly is Chandler.”

“No way! I refuse.”

And suddenly they were back to square one.


	4. Stress?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rehearsals begin

It was Wednesday when the cast list was posted. 

VERONICA SAWYER….. ALLURA BROOKS  
JASON DEAN, JD….. LANCE MCCLAIN  
HEATHER CHANDLER….. AIDAN REILLY  
HEATHER DUKE….. ABBEY WHITE  
HEATHER MCNAMARA….. ROSALBA FLORES  
MARTHA DUNSTOCK….. ALI MENI  
RAM SWEENEY….. MICH ALLEN  
KURT KELLY….. TAKASHI SHIROGANE  
RAM’S DAD…..MILO WEST  
KURT’S DAD….. CARLOS GARCIA  
BIG BUD DEAN….. ADAM HUANG   
VERONICA’S DAD….. KEITH KOGANE  
VERONICA’S MOM….. LAURA KAR

 

And the list went on.

Shiro was extremely happy with his spot. It was exactly where he wanted to be. 

“Shiro!” Someone called.

It was Lance.

“Hey! Whats up?” He called back.

“Nothing much. Just super excited! How do you feel?” Lance bounced up and down.

“Awesome! I'm happy I'm Kurt.” Shiro smiled.

“I'm glad you're happy with your position. You ready for the first rehearsal?”

“Yup! A little nervous.” He answered honestly.

“You've got nothing to be afraid of, big guy.” Lance assured him and patted him on the back.

They walked to the stage together and waited for Coran. 

“Hello friends! I'm excited to start rehearsals today. For right now we're just gonna do a table read and get a feel for what we need to work on.”

Coran and Lance passed out the scripts and when lance gave one to Shiro, he winked. 

Shiro was a little taken aback but he was not opposed to this sudden…. Romance? Affection?

Throughout the reading, Lance leaned over and made small comments to Shiro. Pidge shushed him occasionally when they laughed and Lance stuck his tongue out at her. 

×××

“Hey Frankie, can you teach me how to write stories?” Shiro asked.

They almost fell off their chair.

“I'm sorry, you know I inherited my father's hearing, did I just hear that you wanna write for the paper?”

“Uh, yeah. You heard right.”

“Holy shit! I have been trying to get you to write for as long as I've known you! Did you finally give in? Have Ezra and I broken you?”

“Nah, I just need something to stress about senior year.”

“What? You're a senior? I dunno if you know this but The S in Senior actually stands for stress. What do you mean you don't have something to stress about?” Frankie shook their head. 

“I mean I'm going UMM so I don't really have to worry about colleges.”

“I'm pretty sure there's more to senior year than that but whatever, it's your funeral. I'm calling the eulogy right now.”

Shiro rolled his eyes and got to work on editing. 

Twenty minutes in, Lance walked up and sat next to him.

“Hola, whatcha doing?”

“Editing.”

“Can I help?”

“I don't think so. Don't you have notes to take?”

“I finished them yesterday. I wanna be useful. Besides I know all of this stuff already. My mom is a reporter for the Journal. I work for her sometimes.”

“Wait really? That's awesome! That means you can start working right now!” Shiro enthused. “Hey Frankie!” Shiro yelled across the room.

“What? You didn't lose the footage again did you?”

“No, Lance can start working now! His mom works at the Journal!”

Frankie came jogging over. “Hold up. Is that true! You need to help us now. Do you know how to write? You an editor? Oh man, maybe you can help me with pages!”

“I know the basics. My mom teaches me stuff sometimes and when I'm bored I go to work with her.”

“Oh my gosh this is great news. I'll give you a crush course tomorrow and your first story. Is that something you'll be up to?”

“Of course!”

“Cool, I'm gonna go tell Ezra.” and with that, Frankie left.

“Frankie is very excitable aren't they?” Lance chuckled.

“Oh yeah, you should see them on deadline. We have an extra inhaler for them in the back.”

“Oh yikes.”

With Shiro and Lance’s initiation into the News staff, began a road to homecoming and boy was it an interesting road.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm sorry this chapter is so short I've just been so stressed out. Frankie is based off of me so maybe you can see why. Anyways, leave me suggestions for this story and I would love to incorpoate them because I just wanna make reader engaged.


	5. Gay?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys start talking and they learn a bit about each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta because we die like mean.
> 
> I mean Men.

“Hello, This is Takashi Shirogane”

“and Robert Williams.”

“It is Friday, September 12th,” Shiro announced

“And you're watching the Lowell High News.” Robert smiled.

“It is the third week of school and the counselors are still working on getting schedules sorted out.”

“Counselor Sara Snyder says that students are not allowed to submit schedule requests unless there are, ‘legitimate concerns and conflicts.’ “

 

“Ugh, I wish they wish just hire competent counselors.” Pidge leaned over to Lance.

“They aren't that bad. Everything just got screwed over since we lost a ton of teachers.”

“I guess, but it can't be that hard.” She sighed.

“Katie and Lance, please pay attention to the broadcast.” the teacher said. 

“Miss, we can watch it any time we want to. It's on youtube.” Pidge protested.

“You still need to be respectful.”

Pidge rolled her eyes but Lance had to agree with the teacher. He did wanna hear what was going on this week. 

The broadcast was cool. Now that he knew the logistics of everything, he loved it even more. He paid attention to everything Shiro taught him.

The final bell rang and everyone rushed out of the classroom, eager to get home for the weekend.

Lance was making his way down the stairs when he saw Shiro. 

“Hello, Shiro.” Lance called.

“Oh hey Lance! I was actually about to look for you.” Shiro perked up.

“Really? Why?” he asked.

“I was wondering if you wanted to help me out with lines and stuff? I’ve never done a play before and I wanna make sure I’m doing it right.”

“Of course! I’m not really free next week and I have to work all weekend but I can do right now.”

“I actually have football practice until 4.” Shiro rubbed the back of his head.

“I can wait for you. I’ll just be in the library.” Lance suggested.

“Yeah, that works. I’ll meet you in the gym at 4-ish then?”

“Perfect!” Lance excliamed.

“Cool, I’ll see you then.” Shiro gave him a thumbs up and walked away. 

As he was turned around, Lance made note of Shiro’s legs.

×××

Lance reloaded Instagram for a third time.

He was waiting outside the Gym and it was well past 4 o’clock. It had just turning 4:18 and Lance was getting impatient.

Lance decided to make his way into the Gym and look around.

Lance heard music and laughter coming from the locker rooms. “Ugh, he can’t still be in there.” he whispered to himself.

Lance had a deep seeded anger against locker rooms and other places you would find lots of insecure straight men. 

In middle school when he first came out as bi, he almost got beat up until the janitor came and seperated the boys. After that, he trusted janitor Varkon, or V with his life. 

Lance took a deep breath and pushed open the door. 

Inside, he saw Shiro and two other guys packing up their bags and talking about the coach or something.

“Uhm, hi Shiro. You ready to go?” Lance asked, fairly quietly. 

Shiro turned around, saw him and smiled wide. 

“Hey, Lance! Yeah I’m ready.”

“Hold on!” One of the guys said loudly. Lance was pretty sure he was Ryan Kinkade. “You got a boyfriend and didn’t tell us! Dude!”

“Wait, really? Shiro, come on. We’re supposed to tell each other this kinda stuff and then we can go in on the homecoming or prom limo together!”another guy, James Griffin, scoffed.

Lance and Shiro turned bright red “Oh, no. We’re not dating.” Shiro defended.

“Yeah, we’re just friends. We’re in Drama and publications together.” Lance agreed.

“Oh, my bad. Shiro has just been whining about wanting a boyfriend so we've just hoping he gets one so he can shut up.” Ryan apologized.

“Thanks guys.” Shiro rolled his eyes.

“Okay, but when you do hook up, use protection and then tell us.” James laughed.

“Okay, we should get going now,” Shiro got up and shoved himself and Lance out. Even as they closed the door, they could still hear the boys laughing and making jokes about sex and condoms. 

Lance and Shiro walked out of the gym in silence and to Shiro’s car.

“Sorry about them. They can be a little overwhelming.”

“Don’t worry about it. My friends would probably do the same. Though, to be honest, that was pretty awesome.” Lance grinned.

“Huh?”

“Well, you don’t really associate queer openness with football teams and locker rooms, ya know?”

“I guess so but we’re a pretty open team. Our football coach is a trans guy and he makes us run laps and do community service if we use slurs or bully people. A couple years ago a new guy said that if a guy was a ballerina he was gay so coach made him train with local ballerina’s for a month. He did get stronger legs though.” Shiro shugged.

“Wow, that’s awesome. I love the football team a lot more now.”

“Good, you’re a cheerleader you should probably like the things you’re forced to attend.”

Lance gave a small giggle. “You’re right, I should. I mainly just pay attention to the audience and the other cheerleaders.”

The boys reached Shiro’s car and Shiro opened the door for Lance.

Lance slid into the passenger’s seat and looked around. It was relatively clean, save for the couple candy wrappers. 

Shiro got into the car and turned the ignition.

“You ready?”

Lance smiled and nodded.

Shiro backed out of the parking lot and Lance initiated conversation again.

“So, I didn’t know you were gay.” Lance noted.

“Yeah, I don’t really advertise it loudly except with friends and stuff.” Shiro shrugged. “ I think its pretty cool that you didn’t freak out when the guys said we were together. Most guys get super offended if people think they're gay.”

“Well, I am bi so it would be weird if I did freak out.”

“Oh nice! Did you go to pride this year?”

“Yeah, it was the fourth year I’ve been and I love each time.”

“I went with my friends this year and they both left me alone to hook up with people. It was lonely but I did get a bunch of pins and stuff so I guess it makes up for it?”

“Brutal dude. You should come with me and my friends next year. We won’t abandon you cause two besties are straight and ace and I’m terrible at flirting. I mean, I’m good at it, no one ever responds.”

“I’m sorry, people can be idiots sometimes. I think you’re really cool and logically, people should be going after you.”

Lance blushed and quietly whispered a thanks.


	6. sHUT UP, HuNK

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New broadcast links:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6yBHFmWNs&t=8s -This one has sports tricks  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l2UhOHq5ds - this one is just funny that i did alone

“So, the thing is that this song is super creepy so you have to portray that. You have to act like a date rapist.” Lance advised. “Kurt and Ram are sleazy, entitled white boys who are used to everything going their way. So you Shiro, have to act like an ass.”

“Okay, I get it now. Should I act drunk?” Shiro followed up.

“We’ll add to that later. For right now let’s get the basic character down.”

Shiro read the lines to “Blue” for the third time. It was slightly better this round but they had time to work on it.

Lance still wondered however…

“Shiro, can you read these lines to me?” Lance held up JD’s first few lines.

“Uh, sure.”

Shiro opened up his script to the pages Lance was pointing to and read them out loud.

“Dude, that was perfect! Can you sing something again?”

“Why?” Shiro raised an eyebrow.

“I just… You are the perfect JD. If you can sing better in your auditions, I’m gonna recast you and we will trade spots.”

“But, won't that mess everyone up?”

“We aren’t even doing real rehearsals yet, it’s fine. You’re my dream guy Shiro!” Lance paused. “For the role I mean.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

×××

“What!” Pidge screeched. 

“Chill out dude.” Lance rolled his eyes. “It’s not that big of a deal!”

“You cannot just recast someone into the lead role without letting us know!” Pidge stomped

“I agree with miss Holt. This is a major group decision.” Coran added.

“It’s not even official.”

“You said it out loud in the public performance space, it basically is now.” Pidge groaned.

“Look guys, I understand. But Shiro just messed up a little for auditions and he can do a lot better, I have seen it. I want Shiro to be Jason Dean.”

Coran ande Pidge both looked tired. “Fine.” Coran gave in. “He’ll be JD. But if he messes up, it’s on you. No more recasts. Period.”

“I promise I won’t let you down!” Lance cheered.

×××

“You like him.” Hunk whispered.

“Huh?” Lance snapped out of staring into the void and looked at Hunk, confused.

“You like Shiro.”

“I do not!” he protested.

“I see you looking at him like he a three course meal. I know you.” Hunk teased. 

“Gross Hunk. We are just friends.”

“Yeah, right now. But you wanna piece of that man.”

“Shut up. I don’t have to listen to this.”

“Exactly, you don’t have to but you are cause you know I’m right.”

“You are insufferable.”

“It’s only cause you can’t handle the truth.”

“He is nice and cool but it’s not anything like that.”

Hunk sighed and spun away in his chair.


	7. note

okay so the past couple weeks I was super sick and had to go to the hospital and I was therefore unable to update. I apologize for abandoning you guys. I don't know when I'll be able to update again but it will be before the end of the month. After that, I promise updates will be more regular, probably 1 chapter per week. Anyways, enjoy the Highland Broadcast for now!


	8. Allura, Shiro and Lance may not be the best combo

“Again!” Coran yelled.

Shiro groaned and tromped back over to his starting point.

Behind Veronica, he held the gun and waited for his que. 

Rehearsals were becoming tiring after a couple weeks. He was sick of feeling inadequate for the role but Lance’s motivation kept him smiling. 

Shiro was in deep and he could not believe the hole he had dug himself into. Everytime he looked at Lance he couldn’t stop the butterflies in his stomach banging at his insides. Whenever Lance sang he just wanted to kiss him. 

The only problem was that Lance liked Allura.

After rehearsals that day Shiro saw Lance hanging out with Allura and using cheesy pick up lines. Thankfully, Allura did not seem into but she laughed politely. 

The next day Shiro approached Lance.

“So, you like Allura huh?” Shiro smirked.

“What? Oh uh… yeah I guess. I mean, she’s cool. I dunno if I wanna pursue anything with her though. This one person I like is definitely not into me so I just have to get over it and explore you know?”

“Oooo, who is it?” Frankie butted in.

“No one.” Lance said quickly. “You wouldn't know them.”

“Is it someone here? Like at Lowell?”

“Yeah,”

“Then I know them. I am a journalist, if I don’t know everyone then I have failed at my job.”

Shiro eyed Frankie.

“But uh, I’ll stay out of it.” They chuckled and walked away.

“Whoever it is, just take a chance. You’re really cool Lance I’m sure anyone would love to date you.” Shiro patted him on the back and smiled.

“Thanks Shiro I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lance and Shiro’s phones dinged and it was Allura. 

“Allura just asked me if we could all hang out out over the weekend and practice.” Lance said.

“She asked me that too and if we could do it at my place.” he added.

“Well I’m down. What about you?”

“Definitely.”

\-----Yesterday-----

“Lance those pick up lines are terrible.” Allura rolled her eyes.

“Yeah I know but you just gotta shoot your shot.” Lance shrugged.

“But the problem is that all your shots missed.”

“Oof, that hurt.” he scoffed. “But in all seriousness, I need relationship advice.”

“Sure.”

“I like Shiro and he is your best friend so I need your help”

“I knew it! Just go for it. That’s all I can say.”

“So he likes me back?”

“Dude, you just have to take a chance and if he doesn't like you then you have it off your chest. Either way it’s a good idea and you’ll be fine. To be honest, I don’t know if he likes you. He refuses to tell anyone that sorta stuff and he’s pretty good at keeping things under wraps.”

“Thanks, allura. You’re a savior.”

“No problem. I’ll see what I can do though.”

\-------Saturday Morning--------

“Hi Shiro! Allura just said she can’t make it, something came up.” Lance said as he walked through Shiro's front door. 

“Oh, well, looks like it’ll just be us.” Shiro smiled but on the inside he was freaking out. 

Saturdays are always unpredictable.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I hope you’ re enjoying this so far! This fic is heavily based off of my high school experiences and hopefully you can find my school as great as I do.  
> So there's a thing called sports tricks with shiro and its based off of something our publications team does so here's some links! (sports tricks is after the credits)  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8kzfd0iiVo  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khdrIDRbCzY  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUEzZrTNb5I  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTuN7nKG_gw  
> And here's some bloopers!  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT8JIy3XvgY  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7KMA4L8Low


End file.
